West Coast Trip Long Way around to RMRFIby Stu McCurdyHome
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My Cousin was having his bachelor party in Las Vegas on Friday night. So not
letting a perfect opportunity slip away, my brother and I decided we should
fly my RV-7A down instead taking a commercial jet. We left on Thursday late
morning due poor visibility and low ceilings from Burlington, WI. We stopped
in York, NB to fill up and headed straight to Colorado Springs, CO. Upon
arriving at the airport and taking on some more fuel, I decided that since
the weather was still good we should cross the mountains while we still had
good light and weather. After climbing to 12,500’ we started west using some
waypoints to get us around the peaks. I decided to climb to 14,500’ for a
few minutes to give us some extra altitude for the last peak we needed to
cross. My brother had gone backpacking in Colorado some years back and
wanted to see the canyonlands national par, so we deviated and took a look.
We finally ended up stopping that night in Page, AZ. What a long day.

We then had a short flight the next morning through the Grand Canyon on our
way to North Las Vegas. We were there in plenty of time for the bachelor
party. Had fun with our friends, gambled a little, lost a little, but all in
all a great time. We slept in that next morning and had 40 knot winds in the
afternoon with snow showers developing along the Rockies near Denver to
deal with. After a quick call to Flight Weather, I plotted a course south
down the Colorado river and then east to El Paso, Texas. We landed at dusk in
El Paso. Used the courtesy car (55 cents a mile) and drove to our hotel.

The next morning was beautiful, so we took off and left for Oklahoma City. I
was planning to go home to BUU and then fly out to Sun n Fun on Tuesday, but
again due to the weather, I decided it would be best to head for Florida. We
hit some marginal VFR weather going into KSWO but managed to get our tanks
filled and continue on our way to St. Louis. My brother had his girlfriend
driving from Little Rock, AR meet us there and drove with her the rest of
the way home to Chicago. After refueling again, I continued on to stay ahead
of the weather. I managed to reach Nashville, TN before dark.

On the final day, I woke up early, got a ride to the airport from the FBO
and fueled up with the self serve pumps ($3.09/gal instead of 3.89) The self
serve pump was across the field, but worth the savings. I flew to Crystal
River, FL to keep over land, and then headed southbound to Clearwater.

I must say, that this was a long a taxing 4 days, but I enjoyed every minute
of it. This is one great aircraft!!! I have included a map of my travels and
waypoints. I hope to see everyone at Sun n Fun this week.